Designing a gamified social platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers

In the current paper, a social gamified platform for people living with dementia and their live-in family caregivers, integrating a broader diagnostic approach and interactive interventions is presented. The CAREGIVERSPRO-MMD (C-MMD) platform constitutes a support tool for the patient and the informal caregiver - also referred to as the dyad - that strengthens self-care, and builds community capacity and engagement at the point of care. The platform is implemented to improve social collaboration, adherence to treatment guidelines through gamification, recognition of progress indicators and measures to guide management of patients with dementia, and strategies and tools to improve treatment interventions and medication adherence. Moreover, particular attention was provided on guidelines, considerations and user requirements for the design of a User-Centered Design (UCD) platform. The design of the platform has been based on a deep understanding of users, tasks and contexts in order to improve platform usability, and provide adaptive and intuitive User Interfaces with high accessibility. In this paper, the architecture and services of the C-MMD platform are presented, and specifically the gamification aspects. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A Gamification Engine Architecture for Enhancing Behavioral Change Support Systems

This paper presents a gamified framework designed to offer behavioural change support and treatment adherence services to people living with Dementia (PLWD), their caregivers and medical/social professionals

Interactive virtual method applied in urban design education. Mixed Approach

La memòria d'aquesta tesi tracta sobre l'ús de la transformació digital en l'ensenyament i els processos de disseny urbà, a través de conceptes innovadors i metodologies pràctiques. L'objectiu és promoure l'ús de tecnologies digitals, en particular per avaluar la inclusió de la realitat virtual en diversos entorns d'ensenyament formals i informals del disseny urbà col·laboratiu, per tal de millorar, accelerar i augmentar el seu impacte social de forma positiva i millorar l'ensenyament universitària ajudant al fet que els estudiants consolidin amb major efectivitat les seves habilitats. Amb les característiques d’un sistema de realitat virtual, podem provar la nostra hipòtesi en funció de demostrar: (1) La implementació d'estratègies virtuals gamificades en el camp del disseny urbà generarà una millora i motivació en la participació ciutadana i dels estudiants, ja que l’entorn és més dinàmic, real i permet un disseny col·laboratiu àgil gràcies a les tecnologies visuals immersives, mentre avaluen críticament el resultat d'un disseny urbà i prenen decisions. (2) L'ús de sistemes virtuals interactius per a la comprensió de l'espai tridimensional millora en els estudiants i professionals la percepció de la comprensió de l'espai, generant major enteniment de les condicions d'ubicació, dimensions i relacions dels espais urbans, i defensar els arguments de projectes urbans i propostes urbanes definides interactivament que proven diverses estratègies d'acció. Per provar les nostres hipòtesis, fem servir un mètode quantitatiu i qualitatiu aplicat en diferents escenaris i als diferents perfils d'usuaris, estudiants, professionals i usuaris finals. Els resultats mostraran que és possible potenciar la transformació digital, millorar la motivació pública, la implicació i la satisfacció en els processos de presa de decisions urbanes, així com complementar l'adquisició de competències urbanes específiques necessàries per a la professió en estudiants d'Arquitectura.La memoria de esta tesis trata sobre el uso de la transformación digital en la enseñanza y los procesos de diseño urbano, a través de conceptos innovadores y metodologías prácticas. El objetivo es promover el uso de tecnologías digitales, en particular para evaluar la inclusión de la realidad virtual en diversos entornos de enseñanza formales e informales del diseño urbano colaborativo, con el fin de mejorarlo, acelerar y aumentar su impacto social positivo y mejorar la enseñanza universitaria ayudando a que los estudiantes consoliden con mayor efectividad sus habilidades. Con las características de un sistema de realidad virtual, podemos probar nuestra hipótesis en función de demostrar: (1) El uso de sistemas virtuales interactivos para la comprensión del espacio tridimensional mejora en los estudiantes y profesionales la percepción de la comprensión del espacio, generando mayor entendimiento de las condiciones de ubicación, dimensiones y relaciones de los espacios urbanos, y defender los argumentos de proyectos urbanos y propuestas urbanas definidas interactivamente que ensayan diversas estrategias de acción. (2) La implementación de estrategias virtuales gamificadas en el campo del diseño urbano generará una mejora y motivación en la participación ciudadana y en los estudiantes, ya que es un entorno de colaboración más dinámico, real y ágil gracias a las tecnologías visuales inmersivas, mientras evalúan críticamente el resultado de un diseño urbano y toman decisiones. Para probar nuestras hipótesis, utilizamos un método cuantitativo y cualitativo aplicado en diferentes escenarios y a diferentes perfiles de usuarios, estudiantes, profesionales y usuarios finales. Los resultados mostrarán que es posible potenciar la transformación digital, mejorar la motivación pública, la implicación y la satisfacción en los procesos de toma de decisiones urbanas, así como complementar la adquisición de competencias urbanas específicas necesarias para la profesión en estudiantes de Arquitectura.The memory of this thesis deals with the use of digital transformation in the teaching and processes of urban design, through innovative concepts and practical methodologies. The objective is to promote the use of digital technologies, in particular, to evaluate the inclusion of virtual reality in various formal and informal teaching environments of collaborative urban design, in order to improve it, speed up, and increase its positive social impact and improve university teaching by helping students consolidate their skills more effectively. With the characteristics of the VR system, we can test our hypothesis based on demonstrating: (1) The use of virtual-interactive systems for the understanding of three- dimensional space improve in students and professionals the perception of the comprehension of the space, generating a greater understanding of the location conditions, dimensions and relationships of urban spaces, and defend the arguments of urban projects and interactively defined urban proposals rehearsing various strategies of action. (2) The implementation of virtual gamified strategies in the field of urban design will generate improvement and motivation in citizen participation and students as it is a more dynamic, real and agile collaborative environment thanks to the immersive visual technologies as they critically evaluate the result of the urban design and make decisions. To validate our hypothesis, we use a quantitative and qualitative method applied in different scenarios and to a different profile of users, students, professionals and end users. The results will show that it is possible to empower digital transformation, to improve public motivation, implication, and satisfaction in urban decision-making processes as well as complementing the improvement of the perception of the comprehension of the space needed for the profession in Architecture students

Programming Exercises Interoperability: The Case of a Non-Picky Consumer

Problem-solving is considered one of the most important skills to retain in the coming decades for building a modern and proactive society. In this realm, computer programming learning is vital to enrich those skills. Practicing in this area boils down to solve programming exercises. In order to foster this practice, it is necessary to provide students with the best of the breed automated tools and a good set of exercises in a fair quantity covering the curricula of a typical programming course. Despite the increasing appearance of automated tools such as program evaluators, gamification engines and sophisticated web environments, access to exercises remains problematic. In fact, although the existence of several code repositories (most for feed computer programming contests), the majority of them store the exercises in proprietary formats and without any access facilities hindering their use. This leaves no other option to teachers but to manually create programming exercises which is time-consuming and error prone, or simply, reuse the same exercises, from previous years, which is considered as a detrimental and limiting approach to enhance multi-faceted and creative programmers. The article surveys the current interoperability efforts on programming exercises, more precisely, in terms of serialization formats and communication protocols. This study will sustain the selection of an API to feed a code playground called LearnJS with random programming exercises

Innovation in urban design education

How can we incorporate into our educational system the emerging technologies, new processes and new habits of society to improve public motivation, implication, and satisfaction in urban decision-making processes? New technology implementations in the teaching field largely extend to all types of levels and educational frameworks. However, these innovations require approval validation and evaluation by the final users. The premise is that the technology used in Virtual Reality (VR), is familiar to the Architecture students, which preview to work on specific parameters and outcome, and on the contrary, citizens with a profile not related to the field get more excited and perceive the technology as a more efficient tool. To prove this, we use a quantitative method to evaluate the satisfaction of citizens related and not related to the Architecture field. Using an interactive visualization process in a real environment, we obtained adequate feedback that allowed the optimization of this type of experiment in future iterations. The results show that the degree of satisfaction when using an advanced visualization technology was satisfactory with a differentiation between user’s profilesPeer ReviewedPreprin

Gamification of Authoring Interactive E-Books for Children: The Q-Tales Ecosystem

The e-book industry is reshaping the norm of traditional book publishing and most publishing houses are concentrating their efforts in digital, in order to satisfy new market needs and capture significant market share. Currently, one of out of five e-books sold, are children-related and overall, the e-book industry is projected to be valued at $18.9 billion by 2018. Nevertheless, the increased market penetration of independent writers accompanied with continuous technological improvements leads to new challenges for the stakeholders involved, as a growing number of individuals with limited resources attempt to compete against traditional publishing houses. The Q-Tales ecosystem aims to support the community of creative professionals, experts and parents co-create new (or transform existing) children literature into high quality interactive e-books. At this new disruptive approach of self-publishing, the gamification paradigm was employed, creating game-like experiences, to motivate professionals participate in the process and adopt it. The present study focuses on the gamification aspect of Q-Tales as means to drive engagement with the entire ecosystem and promote its appropriate use, enhancing the overall goal of creating interactive children e- books. The gamification design of the Q-Tales distributed system for collaborative authoring of interactive e-books for children is presented and discussed as a case study of gamification of electronic services. More specifically, game elements, such as points, leaderboards, badges, missions and feedback were infused in the architectural units of the platform, in correspondence to the overall development of the Q-Tales Gamification Framework

Gamification as a Means to Improve Stakeholder Management in Urban Planning Participation

As cities and urban areas grow, the stakeholders involved in urban planning processes increase and diversify. Communication between these different stakeholders is paramount to successful architectural and urban planning. Public participation has gained on significance over the last 60 years as a means to incorporate their local knowledge in planning processes. Public participation forms an essential part as a form of democratic decision-making and in building trust between stakeholders. However, public participation offers do not meet the needs of all stakeholder groups at different planning stages. This is most evident when projects provoke resistance from the general population. This research investigated the misalignment of expert offers and public needs in urban planning public participation at early planning phases as well as the possibility and user acceptance of gamification in addressing these

Virtual learning scenarios for qualitative assessment in higher education 3D arts

Using enhanced learning technologies (TEL) including immersive virtual reality environments, we are seeking to achieve a new way of assessing subjects of 3D arts. We have developed a project based on Scenario Centered Curriculum (SCC), where the students have to think, design, convey, validate, and build a civil project using new technologies that help in the assessment process. We have used gamification techniques and game engines to evaluate planned tasks in which students can demonstrate the skills they developed in the scenarios. The assessment is integrated in the creation of a 3D complex model focused on the construction of a building in a virtual space. This whole process will be carried out by gamification techniques to embed the assessment of the 3D models with the objective of improving students learning.Author's final draf